PHILADELPHIA – Today, the City filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia against the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions. The City is asking the court to stop AG Sessions from adding unlawful conditions to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. These new conditions, announced on July 25, 2017—just barely a month before the application is due—require that the City (1) certify compliance with Section 1373 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code; (2) provide ICE with 48-hours-notice of the “scheduled release” of prisoners of interest; and (3) allow ICE unfettered access to interview inmates in Philadelphia’s prison system. A copy of the filing is available upon request.
“As far as we can tell, these unprecedented grant conditions are purely political,” said Mayor Kenney. “The Trump administration claims that it is imposing these to keep Philadelphians safer, but the facts don’t lie. Philadelphia isn’t breaking federal law. We’re doing smart policing and, as a result, we had the lowest level of crime in 2016 that we’ve had in 40 years. We will not let this Administration interfere with our longstanding efforts to bring members of Philadelphia’s immigrant community from the shadows. ”
The City received $1.6 million from the JAG program last year, and has received an average award of $2.2 million over the past eleven years. This funding is spent on priorities such as police overtime and equipment enhancements, upgrades to courtroom technology, training for law enforcement, and alternative programming for low level offenders. Although the Attorney General administers the grant, Congress established the JAG program to help local law enforcement fight crime. In its suit, the City contends that AG Sessions has announced new rules for that program outside the federal statute that created the program, overstepping his authority by changing the program in a way that Congress never intended. And even if Congress did intend these conditions, that would violate the U.S. Constitution, and the limits it sets on what the federal government can insist that localities do in exchange for funds.
City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante added,. “The Justice Department’s immigration-related conditions have nothing to do with strengthening the City’s criminal justice system, which is what the Byrne JAG program is all about. We are therefore asking a court to intervene and to recognize that the Attorney General lacks the authority to impose any of these conditions.” Fundamentally, the Attorney General cannot use this vital law-enforcement funding as a way to coerce Philadelphia into implementing federal immigration policy and, in turn, heighten fear and anxiety among our immigrant residents.”
Specifically, the City’s lawsuit asks the federal judge (1) to determine that it is unlawful for the Department of Justice to impose the three new conditions on Byrne Memorial JAG funding; (2) to prohibit the DOJ from doing so; and (3) to determine that, if the imposition of Section 1373 in connection with the grant funding is found to be lawful, that the City has properly certified that it does, in fact, comply with the statute. The City submitted its certification of compliance with Section 1373 on June 22, 2017. That certification is available HERE.
The City is represented in the lawsuit by the Law Department and the law firms Hogan Lovells and Dechert .